Frugal. By Nature.

Happiness is… Fresh Food

After a period of slow growing, we’re finally starting to be able to enjoy fresh food from our garden and yard.

And it is pure happiness! I’ve picked more than 3 quarts of fresh raspberries, and we’ve enjoyed several meals of broccoli and green beans from our little garden plot. We’ve even had enough cherry tomatoes for a salad.

There’s something immensely satisfying about being able to eat food that you have grown. It’s nice to know where it was grown, how it was grown, and you simply cannot beat the taste of fresh food. And it’s nice to have organic foods on a budget, too!

Yay garden produce- You’ve had a tough summer up north! Here in Southern MN we’re just starting to get tomatoes, which is my favorite part of the garden (after fruits, of course!) How do you “preserve” you garden? I prefer canning, as my freezer can only hold so much, but am happy having it in any form come January ;c)

Since my garden isn’t big, we eat a lot of it fresh and then I freeze the remainder. I’ve never tried to can anything… and I’d like to try it someday, but it always seems like we’re so busy this time of year that freezing is easier.

It was a very tough Spring this year. I live just across the river from St. Paul in WI and lamented when we still had 24″ of snow in the last part of May. I cheated Mother Nature this year and grew my tomatoes and peppers in a small plastic greenhouse. By the end of June, I had 4 foot tall tomato plants and have been picking an average of 2-4 pounds of tomatoes every other day for the past 3 weeks. The peppers are pretty productive as well.
We grow everything in containers because the soil just doesn’t warm up enough for most of the crops or it gets over-watered with the rains. I have been enjoying green beans, broccoli, kale, spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, green onions since June and squash, cucumbers and tomatoes since the end of July. I have already harvested about 30 pounds of onions for storage and canning. Those were also grown in containers.
When you grow in containers there are less pests, less weeds and no hail damage!